314 LI. OLEINE^E. [Nyctanthes. 



7. NYCTANTHES, Linn. 



Deciduous, with quadrangular branches and scabrous ovate opposite 

 leaves. Calyx campanulate, truncate, with 5 - 6 inconspicuous teeth. 

 Corolla-tube cylindrical, limb spreading, lobes 5-8, emarginate or bifid, 

 contorted in bud. Anthers 2, sessile near the mouth of the corolla. 

 Stigma capitate. Capsule chartaceous, compressed, 2 -celled, splitting 

 into 2 flat 1 -seeded cells. Seeds erect, without albumen, radicle inferior. 



1. N. Arbor-tristis, Linn, j Eoxb. Fl. Ind. i. 86 ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 

 240. Sans. Sepkdli. Vern. Har, sihdru, saihidri, harsinghar, harin- 

 gdr, sakerwa. Local names : Pakura, laduri, Jcuri, Pb., N.W.P. ; Shdli, 

 Bassi in Meywar ; Khersdri, Tdrsdru, Gonds, C.P. 



A large shrub or small tree, rough all over with an uneven epidermis 

 and stiff, whitish hairs. Leaves petiolate, entire or with a few large dis- 

 tant teeth. Flowers sessile, in bracteate fascicles of 3 ; bracts obovate, 

 the fascicles pedunculate and arranged in short terminal trichotomous 

 cymes. Corolla-tube orange, limb white. 



Cultivated throughout India on account of its fragrant flowers, which open in 

 the evening and drop at sunrise. Indigenous in the sub- Himalayan forests from 

 the Chenab to the Sarda river, and in Assam. Common in the Baraitch and 

 Gonda forests of Oudh, and in Central India from the Jumna to the Godavery. 

 The old leaves shed Feb., the fresh foliage appears April, May. Flowers more 

 or less throughout the year, generally during the rains. Seed ripe autumn, C.S. 

 Often gregarious in dry places, 15-20 ft. high, with a short erect trunk, 3 ft. girth. 

 Bark J in. thick, light or dark grey, greenish white or pale brown, slightly 

 wrinkled. Coppices vigorously. R. Thompson describes a large coppice- wood 

 of it, near Ramnuggur in Kamaon, so dense as to be almost impenetrable, from 

 which the neighbouring villages drew their supply of fuel. Easily raised from 

 seed. Wood brown, close-grained, but splits when drying. Only used as fuel, 

 merits attention in that respect. The leaves are used in polishing wood. The 

 flowers are made into garlands, and a fine but transient buff or orange-colour 

 for cloth is made from them. 



Order LII. SALVADOKACEiE. 



Glabrous shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, petioled, entire, with min- 

 ute stipules. Flowers small, regular, tetramerous, in paniculate spikes 

 or racemes. Calyx small, 4-lobed. Corolla hypogynous, membranous, 

 more or less deeply 4-cleft, lobes imbricate. Stamens 4, filaments short, 

 inserted at the base of the corolla, and alternating with its lobes ; anthers 

 2-celled, introrse. Disc hypogynous, 4-lobed. Ovary free, 2-celled ; stig- 

 ma subsessile, 2-lobed, ovules geminate, ascending. Seeds 1-4, albumen 

 none; embryo with fleshy, plano-convex cotyledons. Boyle 111. 319 

 (under Chenopodiacece) ; Wight 111. ii. 227. 



1. SALVADOEA. 



Leaves subcoriaceous, main lateral nerves anastomosing by intramarginal 



